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the next 5 games are gonna be what it's all about....if we can pull of a 1-4 it might be enough to get us a draft pick. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we are the team that Philly snaps their losing streak to the day after we beat Miami

Not off to a good start with that 1-4 goal. At least Cleveland just pulled out the victory tonight so that is a plus. Now if we can lose to them tomorrow night, they will be 3 up in the win column on us. Sacramento plays New York tomorrow, also a big game if you are scoreboard watching like I am.

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So if we land the 7th or 8th pick some how, who do we like? Mcdermott? Stauskas? Hood? Smart?

No thank you on any of those guys but if it were between them four I'd say stauskas. I think he will take a similar career path to Kyle Korver. Only be a spot up shooter first couple years until he gets accustomed to NBA speed and then he can start creating for himself a little and others the way Korver is now for Atl. He would be good pro and fill huge need for us but I'm a sucker for going for big upside guys. If all top freshman go I'd have them categorized like this

Guys that will go before our pick

1a Andrew Wiggins

1b Jabari Parker

3 Joel Embiid (back issues scare me to put him #1)

4 Julius Randle

5 Dante Exum

The next tier guys you can kind of clump together in no particular order

Harris would be my favorite of that group as I see him being very similar to Bradley Beal. I also Like Zach Levine more than most because he is a very gifted athlete with a better shot than anybody else on Pistons at the moment. Even though he is unlikely to be good as Westbrook he has many similarities so it might be worth the gamble.

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Have not done much reading on prospects this year because I did not think we would have our pick. But my first reaction to who we should take should we land our pick is Ennis. Not really interested in Stauskas in top 10 even though I love watching him.

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No thank you on any of those guys but if it were between them four I'd say stauskas. I think he will take a similar career path to Kyle Korver. Only be a spot up shooter first couple years until he gets accustomed to NBA speed and then he can start creating for himself a little and others the way Korver is now for Atl. He would be good pro and fill huge need for us but I'm a sucker for going for big upside guys. If all top freshman go I'd have them categorized like this

Guys that will go before our pick

1a Andrew Wiggins

1b Jabari Parker

3 Joel Embiid (back issues scare me to put him #1)

4 Julius Randle

5 Dante Exum

The next tier guys you can kind of clump together in no particular order

Harris would be my favorite of that group as I see him being very similar to Bradley Beal. I also Like Zach Levine more than most because he is a very gifted athlete with a better shot than anybody else on Pistons at the moment. Even though he is unlikely to be good as Westbrook he has many similarities so it might be worth the gamble.

All of the guys on that list definitely intrigue me. They're all legitimately in play for that area at this point I'd say. I'm intrigued by guys like Mcdermott and Stauskas though as I'd like to see an elite shooter added to this lineup. At the same time obviously you want to make sure you get the best possible value.

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Mcdermott is garbage and will have to play PF which is definitely a position we don't need to address. In fact most of those guys mentioned after the top 5 are garbage. This might be the year to trade #8 for a player already in the league and let some other team get burned on an over hyped draft.

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No thank you on any of those guys but if it were between them four I'd say stauskas. I think he will take a similar career path to Kyle Korver. Only be a spot up shooter first couple years until he gets accustomed to NBA speed and then he can start creating for himself a little and others the way Korver is now for Atl. He would be good pro and fill huge need for us but I'm a sucker for going for big upside guys. If all top freshman go I'd have them categorized like this

Guys that will go before our pick

1a Andrew Wiggins

1b Jabari Parker

3 Joel Embiid (back issues scare me to put him #1)

4 Julius Randle

5 Dante Exum

The next tier guys you can kind of clump together in no particular order

Harris would be my favorite of that group as I see him being very similar to Bradley Beal. I also Like Zach Levine more than most because he is a very gifted athlete with a better shot than anybody else on Pistons at the moment. Even though he is unlikely to be good as Westbrook he has many similarities so it might be worth the gamble.

Thank you for mentioning Zach Lavine. I had watched him once or twice earlier in the year and remember thinking he was athletic, but I watched him last night and was blown away by his size, length, speed, quicks and overall athleticism. Granted, he was out of control and a trainwreck, but he's only a freshman. He's either Austin Rivers or Russell Westbrook, but he is someone I want to go back and take a closer look at.

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Rest assured though, that if these sneaky good picks like Vonleh and Lavine, if they really are accuratley comped to Chris Bosh and Russell Westbrook, GMs either already know, or will figure it out during the process, and will go top 6. Guys like Marcus Smart, Joel Embiid and Tyler Ennis would fall based on lower upsides (except Embiid) or in Embiid's case, too many question marks. Though, I would be really surprised if Embiid didn't go to Philly in the top 3, he seems like a potentially great fit next to Noel.

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No idea on the long term ramifications of stress fractures, but I agree. Back issues on a young big scare me too. He'll still go 3-5 though. I don't see Philly even looking at him though.

/.

I get why you wouldn't like Mcdermott, but I think he could really help this team's floor spacing. I'm not so sure he needs to be a 4 only either. Stauskas works instead though. Even if he's Korver, I might be fine with that.

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I would trade anything lower than #5 as well, and may even trade at #5.

I think there is some depth in this draft and the guy drafted at 35 could have as good of a career--or even more of an immediate impact--as the guy drafted 5th.

People looking for a guy from this draft to come in and be a dominant force are going to be very, very disappointed. These toddlers need two, three, four more years until they reach anything resembling their lofty projections. We need a shooter on the wing who can bring some scoring punch and aggression into the starting lineup from day-one. How many guys in the D-League right now would be better options than Harris, Stauskas, Johnson, etc . . .? Let alone what our draft pick could fetch us in a trade.

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Every draft now feels like a weak one. Having those mid to lower lottery picks is not a fun spot to be but it beats the heck out of not having a pick at all. And I don't think teams outside of the lottery are really looking to move up. Just have to try and make the best of the situation if we land our pick.

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I admit it takes two to tango, but teams are usually looking to move up, even last year in a "bad draft". Utah, Boston, and Atlanta all traded picks to move up in the middle of the draft. And I'm not even counting 3-4 other trades that happened at the end of the first round.

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I think we might be best off just staying put. If there is a good offer for a young veteran, I'd certainly intrigued, but otherwise we'd probably be smart to just keep adding lottery picks to this roster.

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Can we amnesty Josh Smith and do a sign and trade with Monroe? We need to blow up the team and rebuild around Drummond in my opinion. Smith is just an empty suit. I doubt he can be traded...... ummm... I forgot to mention, we need a new GM also.